“I wanted to concentrate on Scorsese’s movie, and what it was going to become as we went through the process,” Nicholson was quoted as saying in the Sunday edition of the South China Morning Post.

“We were reconceiving as we went and, from the beginning, that’s what made this different,” he reportedly said.

“It was a wonderful and perfectly creative experience, and just what I needed and hoped for at this time,” Nicholson said, adding, “It was intense and long, and when you’re at the level of making decisions, it’s exciting, stimulating, inspiring.”

“Infernal Affairs,” which starred Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Hong Kong heartthrob Andy Lau, is about a police officer who goes undercover in a Hong Kong gang and a local gangster who infiltrates the police.